Controversies
Immigration Enforcement Used Questionable Accounting Methods to Break Deportation Record
Did the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency really break last year’s record for deportations? In claiming it did, by processing 392,862 deportations, ICE used some slick accounting procedures, and also persuaded some immigrants to l... read more
Cowardly Members of Congress Vote to Ban Guantánamo Prisoners from U.S.
With time running out on the lame-duck 111th Congress, lawmakers quietly adopted a provision that kills President Barack Obama’s plan to close down the Guantánamo Bay detention facility and transfer detainees to American soil. The maneuver was s... read more
FBI Paid Ex-Con $177,000 to Entrap Muslims
In exchange for paying informant Craig Monteilh $177,000 to infiltrate Muslim communities, the FBI got little to show, except for embarrassment.
Monteilh, a convicted forger of banks notes, was hired by federal law enforcement to spy on Musl... read more
Why Do Dialysis Patients in U.S. Die More Frequently than in Other Countries?
Medicare spends more than $20 billion a year to provide dialysis to patients with kidney disorders—about $77,000 per patient. This expenditure is higher than what any other country in the world spends on dialysis, and yet the United States owns ... read more
Mental Health Problems Most Common Reason for Military Hospital Admissions
If a member of the military goes into the hospital, the most likely problem is not physical, but mental, according to new data produced by the Department of Defense.
The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center found that mental health disord... read more
Railroad Company Charged with Repeated Misconduct Across U.S.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad, now under the control of billionaire Warren Buffett, has been exposed for having a history of judicial misconduct in court cases involving collisions or workplace injuries.
An investigation by th... read more
Almost Half of Hate Crime Victims are Still Black or Jewish
African-Americans and Jews continue to experience more hate crimes than any other ethnic or religious group in the United States, according to the latest statistics from the FBI. Of the 8,336 hate crime victims in 2009, 2,902 were black and 1,13... read more
Federal Workers, Contractors, Soldiers and Some Students Warned not to Read WikiLeaks Cables
Reading WikiLeaks’ treasure trove of classified documents from the State Department can be bad for your career, says the Obama administration. Since the website began publishing diplomatic cables, officials from the Executive Branch have warned ... read more
Taxpayers to Cover War Contractor Losses in Lawsuits by Soldiers
If 34 National Guard soldiers win their lawsuit against contractor KBR Inc., the Department of Defense—and thus taxpayers—will wind up paying for the civil damages, not the company that did the wrongdoing. That’s because KBR received an immunity... read more
Company Wants Nuclear Waste from 36 States to be Buried in Texas
Waste Control Specialists is looking to make money off low-level radioactive waste from three dozen states by offering to store it in a remote area along the Texas and New Mexico border. But the proposed storage has upset activists in Texas and th... read more
State Inspectors Can’t Keep up with Water Pollution Caused by Natural Gas Extractions
Fracking is becoming a nasty word for many Americans with underground wells. The term, which is a shortcut for “hydraulic fracturing,” applies to the method of extracting natural gas by injecting the earth with chemically-tainted water to break ... read more
Transocean Refuses to Release Gulf of Mexico Safety Audits to Government
Transocean, owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, has continually stonewalled federal attempts to learn all the details leading up to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The Department of Justice has filed suit in federal court demanding... read more
Suicide Rate of Women Vets Triple that of Non-Vets
Because they fulfill the combat duties of warfare, male soldiers and their recent spike in suicides have garnered considerable media attention. But the problem of veterans taking their own lives has also become serious among women, who are endur... read more
Federal Law Enforcement Tracks Credit Card Use without Warrants
Federal law enforcement agencies don’t have to seek a court order to conduct real-time surveillance of credit card transactions of individuals. All that’s required is the filing of an administrative subpoena, which does not involve getting a jud... read more
Next Target of WikiLeaks…Bank of America?
Having embarrassed the federal government repeatedly with thousands of leaked documents, Wikileaks appears poised to go after a major U.S. bank in early 2011. The question is: Which one? Bank of America?
In a recent interview with Forbes, Wi... read more
BP (and Others) Exempted from Environmental Laws
As part of its economic stimulus plan, the Obama administration awarded federal contracts to known polluters and exempted them from environmental laws, says The Center for Public Integrity.
The watchdog organization uncovered nearly 180,000 ... read more